150 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



hemp, $34; potatoes, $33; sugar beets, $30; sorghum 

 cane, $21; cotton, $15; orchard fruits, $14; peanuts, $14; 

 flaxseed, $9 ; cereals, $8 ; hay and forage, $8 ; castor beans, 

 $5 (United States Census Report). 



SECTION XXXII COTTON 



Although cotton was cultivated on the Eastern conti- 

 nent before America was discovered, this crop owes its 

 present imperial place in the business world to the zeal 

 and intelligence of its American growers. So great an 

 influence does it wield in modern industrial life that it is 

 often called King Cotton. Thousands upon thousands of 

 people scan the newspapers each day to see what price its 

 staple is bringing. From its bounty a vast army of toilers, 

 who plant its seed, who pick its bolls, who gin its staple, 

 who spin and weave its lint, who grind its seed, who refine 

 its oil, draw daily bread. Does not its proper production 

 deserve the best thought that can be given it ? 



In the cotton belt almost any well-drained soil will pro- 

 duce cotton. The following kinds of soil are admirably 

 suited to this plant : red and gray loams with good clay 

 subsoil ; sandy soils over sandstone and limestone ; rich, 

 dry bottom lands. The safest soils are medium loams. 

 Cotton land must always be well drained. 



Cotton was originally a tropical plant ; but, strange to 

 say, it seems to thrive best in temperate zones. The cotton 

 plant does best, according to Newman, in climates which 

 have (a) six months of freedom from frost ; (b) a mod- 

 erate, well-distributed rainfall during the plant's growing 



